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Club legend losing faith in Wenger to fix Arsenal

This season was supposed to be ‘the one’ finally for Arsenal after the barren years of financial constraints that Arsene Wenger had to work under while other clubs with their oil rich sugar daddies threw money around like confetti at a wedding. But it has been one disappointment after another so far and the fact that it looks like being a club with much less money than us that is crowned champions this year makes it all the more frustrating.

There is still time for Arsenal to rescue the campaign and lift the EPL trophy in May and I’m sure that all Gooners will be Geordies for the night when Newcastle take on Leicester tonight, but it will take an epic comeback like the one produced by the Arsenal side of the late 80s, the one in the film Fever Pitch that blew a promising position and then went on a late run that culminated in a title decider on the last day at Anfield.

The man who scored the first of the necessary two goal against Liverpool in that game, Alan Smith, has usually been a staunch supporter of the current boss but after seeing us capitulate once again yesterday and get knocked out of the FA cup by Watford, Smudger seems to be rapidly losing faith in the Frenchman.

In a column in The Telegraph our former striker pointed out how we keep making struggling sides look good and how the players just do not appear to have that burning desire that champions need. And despite still saying that it is too early to call for Wenger to be sacked, Smith says that the blame for a team’s lack of character or fight must ultimately lie with the manager. It appears that even former Wengerites are now wondering whether it really is time for a change.

He wrote, “It has been going on for too long, this weakness of spirit that means the side falter whenever push comes to shove. Forget about the Cup. Two wins from the past nine league games is no kind of reaction to this crucial period, nor the form to back up Wenger’s claims, repeated in the aftermath of defeat, about “great spirit” and “a strong attitude” within the camp.

“And excuses about finances no longer wash when Leicester and, even worse, Tottenham show no signs of collapsing on the home straight. In fact, were one of these two eventually to triumph, it would be an embarrassing indictment of Wenger’s failure to build a team capable of going all the way.

“After all, it isn’t Leicester or Spurs who have twice shelled out fortunes to tempt players away from Barcelona and Real Madrid. Yet even with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil on the firm, the Gunners look short, still some distance away from the tough, cohesive unit required of champions. For that, the buck can only stop with the manager.

“It is Wenger who decides what kind of character he wants in the dressing room, Wenger who works with those players on the training ground. But whatever he does in the week, it hasn’t stopped the team continually losing its shape in the heat of battle. In Watford, remember, they faced a team that had practically forgotten how to score, with only two goals to show from a poor six-game league run.

“At the Emirates, however, the visitors looked like a side transformed, really dangerous on every counter-attack, as if those previous problems had just been a bad dream. Thanks to Arsenal, they found space and time where none should have existed, just as Manchester United did a couple of weeks back.

“Worse still, Wenger shows no sign of addressing this infuriating fault, much less fixing it. After so long in charge, I doubt he is capable of changing his ways. Quite probably, this is how it will be until he leaves.

“Despite all this, the old banner still hangs at the Emirates. “In Arsène We Trust”, it defiantly cries. But if Arsenal’s season now dribbles to a sad close, that trust can surely be extended no further.”

When people like Smith are calling for time, does Wenger need a Fever Pitch style title win to save him? And have the players got it in them to produce it?

Penny pinching Leister play like PL champion. You don’t have to have big money to be PL winner! Those guys are twisting idiom : Class is temporary, form is permanent.
I believe Arsene has dignity inside. I think he’s reaching his saturation after 20 years. Twelve years without main trophy certainly a bad achievement. He himself need the change for his own good. Arsenal and Arsene is no longer soulmate. His legacy will be forever. Good luck Arsene…

Wenger, you get the impression, will be happy to weigh up the course of his career, and you can make the case that he should probably be content with what he has achieved. Financially, Arsenal keeps its head above water. It isn’t a club that indulges in the vulgar and self-defeating transfer policies that Manchester United and Real Madrid pursue. The London-based outfit attempts to undercut the market and demonstrate that there really is value if you want to find it. When fully functioning, Arsenal is one of the best sides in the world. The side that reached its height at Highbury was one of the most terrifying sides in the history of the Premier League, and whatever came before that, although we don’t really know what that is because there were no Diaries back then.

What is sad is that Wenger appears to have turned his exceptional handful of talents into a dogma that also needs to be dismantled. That perhaps when he looks back on his career, his stubbornness will continue to hold about what is the best way to attempt to win trophies. Ask him: “Do you have to be mentally strong to win the title? Do you need a strong squad? Are you always looking forward for the best players available?” He would probably say “yes” to every question. Because, obviously, “yes,” is the only possible answer to any of them.

But in practice, Wenger has ignored these requirements for the best part of a decade. To have a buffoon like Jack Wilshere hanging around, instead of bombing him out to QPR, is unforgivable. A chippy, short bundle of potential, assured of his own excellence despite the fact that he will never be excellent, he is the archetypal North London Gooner. A card-carrying leader of the selfie brigade movement, Wilshere might just be enjoying himself as young men do. Sure, even Barcelona players are part of the selfie movement, but Barcelona players do it after winning trophies for several years, not after winning against Stoke.

Photo-loving Olivier Giroud shares a similar ailment. The Frenchman can score plenty of goals, because he’s pretty talented, but he can’t get close to Sergio Aguero because alchemy is an impossibility.

The truth of all this is obvious to everybody else; this is why Watford were able to walk into the Emirates with a plan, execute that plan, and walk off whistling. This is why Heurelho Gomes — Heurelho Gomes! — is able to come out the following morning and say that Arsenal “look like a small team,” and that Watford “knew once we had the ball we’d be able to pass it around since Arsenal gives you too much space. They are not strong defensively.” Of course Watford knew it. Everybody knows it. Everybody except for Wenger.

Wenger still appears to genuinely believe what he is saying when he talks of his team. Not in terms of the political dismissal of referees or small incidents in a match — any manager worth the job has to lie over things like that — but when he discusses whether his players stand a chance. He doesn’t think it’s a problem with confidence. He thinks he has the best players he can afford, and he thinks the squad is ready. Every single year. There is something noble about Wenger, but there’s something tragic, which he appears incapable of escaping. And given the way that final acts tend to be definitive, this might well be what he is remembered for.

Nope, I don’t think so. Usmanov and Dein have no balls to take over. Usmanov is richer than Stan or Abramovich, but he doesn’t have just 25% of the Roman’s madness. We need someone crazier, maybe Dangote, who willing to match Kroenke’s stocks at any price.

Kante is better than Coquelin and Elneny together…
Vardy is better than Walcott
Robert Huth is miles away ahead of Mertesacker
Gibbs is a pathetic soul
Chambers is not trusted
OX will never, ever improve, we have seen the best of what needs to be seen.
Wilshere….

I am watching Claudio Ranieri on the touch line and it is so refreshing to see… He is even pushing the fans to make more noise….

Just waiting for certain Wenger fanboys to try and disagree with you by calling you “not a real Gooner” lol. Every fan should realize we will never change under him, Southampton game confirmed that, suffering embarrassing defeats and not doing anything about it is criminal for a manager supposedly managing an “elite” team. If Barca, Bayern or Real suffered at least 2 of those kind of defeats within a year the manager would be sacked without question, but we have suffered these kind of defeats at least 5 times within the span of 2 years and the board just ignore it. You can’t buy Sanchez and Ozil and expect them to carry a mediocre team for a full season, even Ronaldo and Messi need world class players around them to thrive that’s a fact !

Funny Barca, Bayern and Real change managers quite often but you don’t notice because of their dominant natures. Real might be the lesser and they should have never let Achelotti go, but I can guarantee you if we ever were to face them it would be curtains for us as both Barca and Bayern have proven.

Organize a walk out in the next home game or even better just boycott the game until the board is ready to have a word with the fans. That is surely going to rattle their delusion infused brains. Just go for it ’cause it’s only going to get worse off from here.

Alan have said it all…I particularly love this.” I doubt if he is able to change his ways”
He will never change! Arsenal always a ‘nearly’ club
Always..’We could have’
Arsenal is lucky so have fans like these…
But then Wenger’s nature is not only reflecting on the players but on some fans too!
Have never seen a manager as arrogant as he is despite being soo deluded..You might wanna say Mourinho is proud, but he has trophies to show for it.he is a winner, a tactician,an excellent game reader..Wenger and his players are World class talkers, world class bottlers!

Rumours are really strong concerning Liverpool wanting The Ox, what would u say to that?
I say we should keep him bcos he is our next Bale..he can run and run! He scares opposition teams and blow them away in a flash! Lol…
Liverpool pls u can have him for free…

You can’t polish a turd, but you can cover a bar of gold with dung, that’s what goes on at Arsenal. Wenger needs to go. He raised the club high enough only to drop it as low as possible. This looks worse than the sixties and the seventies.

I’d wait for the mathematics to do their justice, so give it two or three more games and then it would be really nice to see all the season ticket holders standing outside the stadium for the entirety of that home game protesting their hearts out.

What Wenger is doing is truly a selfish and arrogant act. The WHOLE world sees the rot but his pride is way too big for him to acknowledge it. I don’t buy into this he’s too old to change BS because I’ve seen and worked for men the same age and even older than him and they change a failing process immediately. They might not be football managers but this is just plain common sense. Some people are just book smart with no common sense and normally people like that get left behind because they can’t adjust to life’s changes…

Kronke’s comments as quoted in the press have confused me. He seems to say that winning championships is not important but that growing “the brand” is important. To my mind, to grow “the brand” requires success on the field. Us fans have accepted the lack of silverware as we have been paying off the stadium and had to sell our best players.

Unless Kronke now realises that the fans want more than 4th place, then slowly support for Arsenal will fall, why pay top whack to watch mediocrity. There may be a waiting list for season tickets but that will soon disappear if fans believe they are paying the highest ticket prices to watch a team which bottles every opportunity. In Kronka’s terminology the “Brand” will fall in value and the value of his shares will fall with it.

This season has demonstrated that
1. with top class signings like Ozil and Sanchez,
2. not having to sell players
3. Manu, manc and chelsea all performing badll
Arsenal still cannot win the PL

Kronke needs to act, whether that is to redirect the manager, sack the manager, sack other staff or sell his shares.

kroenke bought the brand. he will do the minimum possible to keep our hopes alive as long as we keep turning up at the emirates and buying stuff. only if those income streams are threatened will kroenke pay attention. he’s a businessman. end.of.

It’s the culture at the club and it starts with the owner…you got to held people accountable & be about winning not about turning around profit (which by the way if you win gets bigger as you attract more commercial deals & bigger players that wants to win/play for the best)!!
1) Spend your money wisely but spend it!!
2) Be patient with youth but don’t be stupid after a moment you gotta decide has he gone where he should have not blindly trust a talent that shows no sign of flourishing
3) Stop trusting players that don’t perform it reinforces that culture
4) Stop blaming everyone but yourself when you lose: referees, amount of games played, injuries, poor pitch, conditions and so on
5) When you lose ask yourself why recurring deficiencies happen in your squad: lack of finishing, the lack of focus defensively and so on
Is there any club where the fans are so conflicted & frustrated? At some point were not dreaming & venting for venting something is not right period & we risk losing our best players all over again